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Hi!
What a good girl!! It is really fun to see it all coming together 🙂 I like to create little courses for the baby dogs because I agree – it keeps things exciting as opposed to doing too much repetition. I think she agrees – note how she got faster on each rep. YES! Great job adding the verbals and being connected throughout 🙂
On that first in in, you can keep your feet pointing to the tunnel just like you did when you brought her into the gap on the tandem turn (which is a version of the threadle) – she read it perfectly even with your feet facing forward.
And on the serps at :11, :31 and :49 – this is a good camera angle to show what we were chatting about above – as she was coming over the green jump before the blue serp jump, you were facing forward to the tunnel. That is perfect lower body, really allowing you to move forward on the line. My suggestion about the upper body is to have you look back at her a little more (it is a moment of direct eye contact) and have your right arm reach back a little sooner), so the center of the chest faces the center of the bar to show the turn cues one stride earlier. Let me know if that makes sense! This is looking great!
TracyHi!
>>First, on the serpentine stuff. I had been turning toward her on the “here” serp jump, and felt it was perhaps too much, so really toned it down. I am using my off-side arm/hand (with lotus ball in the hand) and shaking it as I give the verbal “here”. If you feel I should be rotating into her more, that should be fairly easy. I just need to find a happy medium. ;).
A little more rotation can be done by looking at her eyes more directly, that will drop back the shoulder while also keep your feet straight like they were here 🙂
>>On the tunnel – yes, the far end word is “far.” (Makes sense to me and she doesn’t care.) 😉
I think it is a great choice of words: easy to remember because it makes sense, easy to say while running, and I don’t think it sounds like any other verbal – it checks all of my boxes 🙂
>> In terms of more motion – are you saying you want me to run to the threadle end so I’m picking her up soon and can leave as soon as she shows commitment to the “far” end? I’ll have to try what I think you’re suggesting and you can let me know if I’m in the ball park at all.
Yes – picking her up more at the exit and showing more motion as you execute the threadle cue. I think she is ready! Motion usually dilutes behavior, so now is a good time to show her that the cues/behavior are the same even as you get faster and faster 🙂
T
Hi!
>>Quick question, I am signed up for an outdoor AKC trail at the beginning of Oct. Do you think there is value in entering Zing in a couple of runs. It would be FEO since her contacts nor weave are even close to finished. So I would work startlines and perhaps a couple of jumps or tunnels.. Curious how you look at stuff like that.
She will be about 18 months old-ish? I think FEO is a GREAT idea. I haven’t seen her in a trial environment, but she is pretty level-headed, right? No worries or anxiety? If she seems relaxed and happy, FEO for startlines and jumps & tunnels is great! It is a terrific way to get her into the trial environment and make it feel as good as training 🙂
T
Hi!
>> the list is getting closer. In the meantime I decided to run today. ‘Cause you know, you have to do benchmarks to see if things are getting better LOL.
Perfect! And it helps the list 🙂
>>I did the start several different ways. She is such a baby I wanted her to see it all.
Yes – totally agree with this approach. She needs exposure to ALL the tools not just certain ones.
>>The other thing that I am realizing is that I need to adjust my “goals”. Hard for me to run Hoot with the goal of clean and then run Zing with the goal of teaching and feedback.
Yes, you raise an important point with this and something to remember for the next 2 years 🙂 Plus, with Zing being so young, you will likely have to add ‘over-connect’ to help her to your goals as you run courses, while with Hoot you will be able to point, yell something, and run away in those same moments 🙂
>>I need to do a better job and take what ever she gives me as info. In a class like this I tend to want to do “all the things” and do them well.>>
That is the fine balance between trying different techniques, breaking it down, and putting bigger pieces together.
On the video, lots of really fun stuff happening!!!! Some ideas/thoughts for you. I think breaking it down with the emphasis on showing her early timing and great connection will help smooth out some of the spots that had wrinkles 🙂
First rep:
You can work to leave the ‘in in’ at 2 sooner so you can get the BC further up the line sooner – my guess is that you leave a step or two sooner, and also add some exit verbals like a wrap verbal and her name so she comes directly to 3 which will allow you to get the BC sooner (and help to keep the bar up at 5 and get the FC earlier at 5 to the tunnel).
On the tunnel – try to show her the FC and call her before she enters (6 feet before or no less than 3 feet before). And, one of my mantras: “don’t give a ‘forward’ cue like and obstacle name or go verbal until you can see the dog’s head turned to the line you want.” You said tunnel while she was looking at the exit of 7, so that is where she went (nice and fast too!). It looks like you got your eyes to her eyes on the exit of 6, but didn’t maintain it long enough for her to make the turn, so she never picked up the correct side.2nd rep – The backside push to BC at 2 is a good option here – try to do it from further across the bar at 2, as close to the exit wing as possible, so you can be much further ahead and past the takeoff side before she takes off – at :16 you were on landing side as she took off when ideally you would be way ahead there past takeoff side. The BC there and RC 3-4-5 works and is a good technique to play with but it is a lot of handling that puts you behind for the cross to the 6 tunnel in this situation.
You got more of a turn with the spin to a threadle to a RC on the 2 tunnels – it was a whole lotta handling but didn’t put you ahead, and made the backside harder because she was turning to her right on the tunnel exit and you were in catch up mode. I think you original plan of FC there was the best option.Even if you end up behind on a backside line, you can use more extreme connection (and convergence if needed) to push her out – you turned a little forward so she came to the front.
3rd rep – you left 2 a lot sooner and pushed 3-4 and she did a great job – at :37 you are miles ahead (good reward there!!) I really like that plan: simple easy handling (lots of skills embedded in there to make it look easy!) and it had the tremendous benefit of putting you very far ahead. It was cool to see how well she understood commitment to 2 so you could leave so nicely!
On the tunnel exit, work the parallel path to the backside (running more towards the center of the backside bar or towards the exit wing, but with big connection) so you don’t have to go to the entry wing – that makes the next line easier! It was hard to see what your convergence line was at :46 but she seemed to think it was good! And that means it was good, because she is too young to save you if it was crappy 🙂
The 10 tunnel is a spot to concentrate on timely cues, even if you are behind – at :48 the physical and verbal were late (she saw acceleration as she entered it and the verbal started just as she entered, so she was wide on the exit.
On the ending line – I don’t think she was scoping for an off course set of poles LOL!! I think she was being super literal – at :56 when she didn’t read the RC, it looks like you turned your shoulders forward to the weave pole line rather than face the RC diagonal to the center of the bar. So her head was facing straight… and you said go before she responded to the RC cue, so she was going LOL! It was one of those “don’t give a forward cue until the head is turned to the line you want” moments – boy, I have learned that the hard way LOL!!Overall, she is showing some really great skills which is why I can bug you about timing or the little details of watching where she is looking (sounds so easy… NOT!) but that will really solidify putting the skills into the course!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi there!
>> I kinda cheated and did some walk thru’s when I set up the course earlier this week.
That is perfectly fine to do 🙂 At trials, I often volunteer as a course builder to get extra time out there walking – oops, I mean *building* the course haha!
>> I liked the handling plan that I walked, but a few times was out of position.
Yes – the general shape of the plans were good… but I think you went into your actual run with her too early in the planning process. On each sequence, you had just finishing fleshing out the general plan and then you ran it for realz 🙂 Especially because she is so young, walk it several more times – to practice your connection and to get it into more actual running (with connections :)). That will accomplish 2 things:
– you will know how you will need to move to positions
– you will have it better rehearsed, so the speed of the actual run feels very comfy and normal.If you go directly from the ‘fleshing out the plan’ where you are moving slowly and not really connecting to the invisible dog right into the real run – there will be errors of connection, timing and position. With very experienced dogs that you have run for a while, this all becomes less important because you have a natural feel for the connection and pace of the run. I am just getting there with Voodoo and he is 7 LOL!!
So I think the oopsies you had on these courses were mainly because you were doing the run at speed for the first time while actually running her – and most of those oopsies will go away if you do 3 or 4 passes on the sequence focusing on connection, timing and the pace you think she will be moving at. The last thing you will want to do before you run her is a walk through that is as close to what you think the actual run will be, and then see if you can reproduce it with her 🙂>>backsides are hard right now at full speed plus I don’t have any wings outside which probably changes the picture for her.
Yes, wings on backsides are easier! I use laundry baskets or whatever I can find (garbage pails LOL!) to help the visual when wings aren’t available.
On the courses, there were a lot of really lovely moments of connection and showing the lines!! There were a couple of oopsies in each run (and yes, I will bug you about fixing them in advance in the walk through LOL!!) Your choices were solid, so it is a matter now of using the rest of the walk through to rehearse them with your speedy invisible dog so you are ready to run them with your speedy real dog 🙂
Sequence 1, you were connected but then turned your shoulders too soon so she was unsure of what you wanted at 3. The 2nd pass was much better, because you had rehearsed it already and know what needed to happen and how fast you needed to move 🙂 That could have been done without her, to get it clean on the first run with her. The rest of the run went nicely, you were really working your connection! The threadle into the other end of the tunnel can start sooner – you started it when she was over the bar of the jump before the tunnel, so you can start it when she lands from the jump before that, so she is already turned over the bar.
Course 2 – I think the oopsies on this course can also be ‘fixed’ in advance in the run through – the backside after the tunnel needed more motion (you moving forward) and a really intense connection to her. At 4:38 you decelerated and turned forward, so she ended up on the front side. And on the last jump, at 4:58, you looked forward so she turned into you and missed the last jump. So on both of those moments, that is where jogging in the walk through while looking at your invisible dog will really help, so when the real dog is there your connection will be spot on 🙂 You got it on the rep where you fixed it, because you knew how fast to move and where to connect – but that is something you can do in the walk through to nail it in the run.
Course 3 – you moved a little far off the line 2-3 and then back which caused her to end up on the wrong side of 3. Then the BC at 7:29 caught you by surprise a bit, in terms of how quickly you had to leave 4 to get up there and when to start it, so she went around the jump after it. That is another spot ti ‘fix in advance’ in the walk through – practice running up the line while looking back to the tunnel exit, so you can do the BC when she exits and show the next line.
Let me know if this makes sense! Most of what you were doing in the runs looks really good, which shows that the handling choices were good! The errors had more to do with getting the rehearsal in at speed and with connection being rehearsed, all before the run 🙂
Tracy
Hello! We have plenty of time to get stuff done here, you are not a slacker LOL! I am glad you are finding the walk through stuff to be useful – I found it to make all the difference for me, and also it is a widely accepted practice in other sports so I figure we can steal it for agility 🙂
OMG her threadle and serp work is looking great!! I am happy with all of the reps, I think there was nly one error and she corrected it really quickly. The next step is to add a wing before it, parallel to the jump: send her around the wing so she exits the wing facing the serp side of the jump – and sometimes serp it, and other times threadle her to the threadle side. This will challenge your timing because there will be more speed and build up her understanding too!
On the sequence:
This is going well!
First rep: it was all super connected, which is hard to do at her speed!
She pulled the rail at jump 3: you were late showing the deceleration and rotation. However, it is a great proofing moment! Because she might, sometimes, see a late cue, we can try to convince her to not touch the bar. If she drops the bar, yo ucan stop her, fix it, then do the same exact handling on purpose on the next rep: then have a HUGE party when she doesn’t touch the bar.The FC on the 5-6-7 section went well! You can finish the rotation on step sooner, so while she is jumping you can be already facing 7.
2nd rep – the timing on the wrap at 3 was earlier and clearer on the transition, so she collected for a nice turn and kept the bar up.
One thing to consider here (and on the previous rep) is to put the toy in a pocket – you are switching hands during critical moments LOL! For example, when you need to be finishing your rotation then leaving for the next line, you are switching toy hands *then* finishing the rotation. That delays things by one step… but with her speed, you need every step you can get! The same toy switch happened at 6-7 🙂She is responding really well to the brake hand for a left turn on 5! You can give it a little sooner: when you see her exit the tunnel, slow down and show the brake hand. She saw it here right before takeoff which is a little late to keep her jumping smooth.
You definitely got through the FC at 6-7 faster at :26! But then you over-helped with the spin on 7, looking forward a little and blocking her line and stepping in too soon, so she ended up on the backside.OPening of reps 3, 4, 5: you started 1-2 on a blind here and I think that is why you ended up with the backside on 3: having to do the extra handling of the blind made you scramble to 3, so you got too eep and she read it as push to backside pressure on both of these reps (note how your running line was more towards the center of the bar at :32 and :38 amd :55) as compared to :04 and :21 when you ran more towards the wrap wing. I think using the lead out push on 1 actually set up a better line for you! You corrected it with a name call/shoulder pull at 1:03 but it is really interesting to see how the different handling choice set a really different line here.
She dropped the bar at :46 (#5 jump) – this is also a proofing opportunity for a slightly late cue (you were a stride late). I think she is trying to respond immediately and ends up touching the bar, so showing her the late cues and rewarding for NOT touching the bar will help her not feel the need to be so urgent in her responses 🙂 She kept it up on the last rep with the same cue timing, so I think you can definitely talk to her about the ‘no touching’ rule even if the timing is not perfect 🙂
Your timing and position on the spin on the last rep at 1:10 was really great! It produced a really tight, fast turn 🙂 Yay!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! Great news that he had no trouble!!! And yes, a big dog like Cody needs us to protect him from slipping if he won’t protect himself LOL!! Being tall, he has a high center of gravity so he is more likely to slip.
THi! It sounds like we have a theme of stepping away when you want to drive to a specific spot or stay on the mouse line 🙂 you can bring an extra leash and lay it on your running path so you have a visual to help get in the habit. Or, you can use a jump bar to draw a line in the footing to give yourself the line to run. That can help build the habit of staying close with visual guides in the moment.
Thi! The email that came through about these says there was a vimeo post – did you switch over to YouTube or did I miss something? Let me know so I don’t miss anything 🙂
Da da da dat daaahhhh, I want to come train at your house so I can get trumpet in the background and sing along!!!!! Ha!!!!
The serpy threadle video looked good!! He was able to hold his stays with your arm up (that is actually pretty difficult!) and I agree, he drove to the toy better with your motion…but also committed correctly to the serp or threadle as cued. GOOD BOY! He turned a little better going to his left than to his right on these. I am not sure if he is stronger turning left or if he is more confidently driving directly to the toy on those left turns of the serp and threadle. When he was turning right, he was coming in beautifully but waiting for permission to get the toy longer rather than going right to it. So, you can just give him his get it cue sooner when turning to his right to affirm that yes, he has permission to go directly to it 🙂
Since this is going well, the next thing to add is more motion: fast walking for now. And I bet you will be able to get your motion to a job and then a run within a few sessions.
Turn And Burn: whoa, bendy!!!! He is leading with his head through those turns (maybe goes back to clicking the head turn a few months ago?). He is doing a great job of setting up his turn so he can be super tight but also NOT touching the wing (yessss) and driving around. After the first couple of reps where he was sorting out the wing, he got faster and faster heading to it and really bending. That last rep was spectacular!!! I think you can do the rocking horses on 2 wings now – take a rep or two to transfer the concept to both wings with a cookie for each, then try the FCs and see how it goes!!!
Great job 🙂
TracyHi! Using his name on those helped set him up for success – that was totally the right choice! I think when he was heading towards the prop, he perceived it as being on his line enough that he should take it. Good boy! So moving away to make it most definitely not on his line was totally the right choice too 🙂 When it was too much on his line (like on the last rep) you helped by opening your shoulders, kind of like a little threadle LOL! He read that nicely, but from the camera angle I could understand his argument that the prop was close enough to be on his line (he didn’t have to really lead change or diverge away to get it).
Well done on the get out reps: your timing and mechanics looked great, he had no trouble. Yay! Looked beautiful. So on the next session when you re-visit this game – start him further away from the prop so the get out is a big distance away: partially to add challenge to the get out, partially so the ‘follow the momma’ moments are very clear as compared to the get out moments. And – I bet you can add more speed (jogging, running) to both 🙂
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! This is going really well!! He was happy to do whatever it took to get the magic ball LOL!
His commitment is looking really strong. Yay! And the turn and burn elements also look great. The forward sending on the rocking horses looked pretty perfect. As you add the rotated sends, you can make it feel less bizarro 🙂 by decelerating and shifting into the sideways/backwards sends as he is passing you. I think you were trying to go fast then send backwards, which makes getting into position really hard and ends up feeling like you have to slam on the brakes. And that is why he looked at you on those. So, you can slow down (while moving forward) then rotate – the rotation won’t be as early, but that is fine because the decel is an important part of the cue to commit & turn, and then the rotation will feel soooooo much smoother and less weird 🙂
Let me know if that makes sense! He is doing really well, so you can add more distance between the 2 obstacles 🙂T
Hi! I am glad you got a vacation in!!!! And a break is GREAT for dog training – the dog and human both come back refreshed and happy to get back to work 🙂 No need to rush to catch up, we have *plenty* of time in this course to let the puppies really blossom 🙂
I love that he was happy to get back to training, the woo woo must have been so cute!Onwards to videos!
Turn and Burn: This is going well! The one big thing is… you are too exciting 🙂 Ha! Bearing in mind that whippets have a super strong chase instinct, when you did the really loud YES and started to run when he was not finished, he got excited and chased your party 🙂 So it wasn’t the timing of you leaving, it was the excitement level. Welcome to Team Chill (I am a founding member haha) where we have to pretend we are calm until the dog makes it all the way around. Now, you can leave pretty early in terms of making the FC and moving away when he is halfway around – but be quiet and smooth and maybe a little slow (for now). When he finishes the wrap even with you leaving, that is when you can turn on the big yes and the running and excitement. He got better and better as the session progressed and you did a great job of reminding him of the value with the tossed treats at the exit! So you won’t need to be a member of Team Chill forever, just for now 🙂 You are probably used to being super high energy with your RR but staying calmer for now will help him. Let me know if that makes sense 🙂Serp game: super awesome!!!!!! I am impressed with the accuracy for your cookie throws LOL!! In the first part, when he was coming to your right hand – pretty darned perfect. In the second part, when he was coming to your left – not as perfect but I think that had more to do with the cookie throw ending him on a threadle line, so he was offering a threadle behavior (smart dog!). You fixed it by altering your cookie throw and then he was fine. It was hard to tell if he was turning back out to the ready treat before you clicked it or if the click was creating it: on the first part, I think he was turning himself back out but on the 2nd part, I think the click was creating the turn out. it is all good though, because you can now delay the click a heartbeat until he turns towards the ready treat… the click it to reward the turning back out of the in-then-out chain. And if he is fine with that (and I think he will be), then you can add motion: I posted the video on Saturday with motion added. When you add motion, *definitely* be on Team Chill, motion is hard for pointy dogs LOL!!!
Rocking horses also looks great! He is bending his body really nicely! Little details to consider:
As you finish the FC, hold your arm back a little further to make a very direct eye contact, before you indicate the next wrap. That will help him find the correct side of you to be on when we add more speed 🙂 Think of it as a moment of connection before the send, no need to send to the next one until you know he is coming to the side you want him on.
2 ideas for you to build on this:
First, with the 2 poles nice and close like this – add in a toy. At first, maybe just have the toy present, in a pocket or hand, and all the reward is with food. Then you can build to tugging before the game (with food rewards) and then eventually it can all be done with tugging 🙂 This is to help him understand how to commit and wrap even when he is more excited/stimulated! I use this progression to teach high drive dogs to focus on “work” and not slam me or bite me or bark at me LOL!
Second, separately from the toy: start to add more distance between your poles, so he can go faster 🙂 You can move more too.Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! I love your enthusiasm when she gets it right here – very affirming and FUN!!!!
Nice job on this. Her regular tunnel send looks great, of course – that is easy for her now 🙂 The tunnel threadle (I think you were saying ‘far’) is going nicely too, she is thinking about it more but getting it right. I wonder if the hand cue is a bit too low and strong, stronger than she needs for now? It was a bit of a stop sign so she didn’t seem sure if she should go past it. When you softened it and moved it out of the way a bit at approx :51 and the last rep – she was MUCH faster going to the tunnel. Now, that could have also been because she was really getting the hang of the game 🙂 but you can also play with a higher, softer hand cue – she listens really well so we probably don’t need anything more than the verbal and slightly different visual.
As the session progressed, your feet were facing forward more and more which also really helped. Yay! I think she is ready for you to add challenge in 2 ways:
First, a bit more motion – run to the end of the tunnel so you can move forward on the threadle cue a little faster 🙂
Second, if more motion goes well – you can move forward until she makes the independent decision to turn away (and then you can have the big party) – that will build to allowing you to threadle and trust her independence while you just get outta there on course 🙂
Great job!!!!
Tracy
